Customer Reviews

Best of Rosa Passos

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The music of Rosa Passos is intimate, romantic and sexy. She sings in the simple, almost folk style of Brasil, but she has a jazz sensibility and an honesty and easy emotionality that goes right to your heart. Not every note is exactly on pitch, but somehow it's always close enough and the little flaws just make her more approachable and real. She doesn't have a big, strong voice. She has a light and expressive sound, sometimes whispering or sighing, sometimes making a bolder statement, but always as though telling her life stories to one of her closest friends. She also writes beautiful songs. Kenny Rankin features one of her songs and also does a duo with her on his best album, Here In My Heart. Rosa Passos' album is beautifully arranged and it sounds musical, not commercial. If you like the music of Ivan Lins, you will love this.

Incredible. This woman can break your heart with her whisper. Never as showy as Marisa Monte, never as dramatic as Maria Bethania, she still does it - effortlessly, naturally. To be beautiful, a rose does not have to make efforts - she IS beautiful. And so is Rosa's voice - it has all the sweetness of a hummingbird's singing, all the joy of a morning breeze in the leaves, and all the melancholy of the sea. And that is why for me her voice is the best voice of Brazil. Eu Te Amo Rosa.

I first heard Rosa when I saw her open for Gilberto Gil at the Hollywood Bowl (her only American appearance that I know of). She is an amazing songwriter, but her arrangements of other people's compositions (mainly Chico Buarque's "Com Açucar, Com Afeito" and Ary Barroso's brilliant "É Luxo Só") are simply perfect. Having mainly been a songwriter for most of her career, I'm really happy that she is now putting out her own CD's. She has a really sweet, youthful voice and her music is very infectious bossa-samba.

If you haven't heard of Rosa Passos before, I highly reccomend this album as a great introduction to a wonderful and very popular Brazilian vocalist (with good reason, too!). She glides through the popular songs from Brazilian repertoire with grace and expression. I can't really compare Ms. Passos to any singer (Latin American or otherwise) that I have listened to in the past. I find this greatest album to be so relaxing and is a great escape from the stress of day-to-day life. You don't have to understand Portuguese to enjoy the soulful melodies that are filled with tender melodies and delicate, soft, whispered crooning from Rosa.

Not only does Rosa shine on the light samba/ballads she presents to us, the audience ("Aquarela do Brasil," "Aguas de Marco," etc.) but she also is well-accompanied in her duets with two other well-known popular Brazilian singers, Chico Buarque and Ivan Lins. Rosa's vocals glide over her self-accompanied guitar and the other instruments that carry on a dialogue of rhythm and melody.

Fantastic singer, now my favorite from Brazil, and this is a superb collection of some of her best. A tip: another CD with the same track listing as this one is "O Melhor De Rosa Passos". You may have better luck finding a copy of that one.

Rosa Passos is an incredible brazilian singer. This CD contains many well known Brazilian songs but they all have a magical touch and twist, not only in the incredible quality of Passos interpretations but also in the beautiful harmonic arrangements all this songs have. This CD is a must!!!

I wont say much in this review...but just listen to her version of "É Luxo Só" and you'll immediately fall in love with this artist's voice and style!

This is a great album to get to know some of her best work!!! Don't hesitate!

All the reviews here keep saying that Passos' voice is breathy or gentle, which to my mind is equating her with jazz singers like Blossom Dearie. No way! Her voice is extremely girlish-sounding, but she is one of the most innovative singers I've ever heard -- she completely deconstructs songs and makes them her own, but they're still quite recognizable. This is wondrously apparent on her take on the old Carmen Miranda chestnut "Brazil" and the somewhat newer Jobim chestnut "Aguas de Marzo [Waters of March]." She changes tempo suddenly, her phrasing is unexpected, and yet she always comes back to the melody. Her version of Djavan's "De Flor Em Flor" starts out like a murmured conversation, and then suddenly her voice takes flight in the chorus, soaring joyously. Breathtaking. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find this utter master of the bossa nova style.

Rosa has such a great voice with excellent phrasing, every song is great. It is a shame that her cds are impossible to obtain here.

Undeniably one of the finest female voices in the Bossa Nova genre. Her carefree yet sophisticated style has won the hearts of many. ( Mine included. ) Three of my favorite tracks are, "Aqualera Do Brasil", "Zanca Zangada", and "De Flor Em Flor". Rosa Passos has the ability to take the listener outside of his/her element into an exotic musical experience. I would venture to say that the majority of the people who enjoy the Bossa Nova genre, aren't well versed in the language or the culture of Brasil. Aficionados in this case will compensate by using musical discernment. The real joy in lisenting to Rosa Passos is the emotion her voice evokes and the aficionado's response to her voice. That's the real attraction. That's why I purchased her CD. Cultural disparities aside, I would recommend "The Best Of Rosa Passos" to all aficionados of music regardless of genre.